Finish seat floors / rollers

The right seat floor was riveted to the right seat rib assembly. The seat assemblies were then clecoed and riveted to the center bulkhead.  The bulkhead side assemblies were then riveted to the seat floors.  Rollers were bolted in place being careful about orientation.

Time: 1.75 hrs.

Right seat floor

Seat Floor assemblies to center bulkhead

Seat floor assemblies to center bulkhear

Seat floor assemblies to center bulkhead

Forward uprights / side assembly

Left roller

Right roller

Seat hinges / seat floor

Seat hinges were cut, match drilled and riveted to the seat floors. The left seat floor was then riveted to the left seat assembly. Nutplates were attached and snap bushings added as per plans. The left seat floor support was then riveted.

The right seat floor was clecoed in place on the right seat assembly and will be the next time I get back on the project.

Time: 2 hrs.

Match drilling seat hinges.

Seat hinges riveted

Dimpling seat floor

Left seat floor ready for riveting

Nutplates attached to left seat floor

Left seat floor support added

Snap bushings placed

Rigth seat floor and nutplates clecoed

Seat rib assemblies continued

Started today by preparing the flaperon stops and riveting one flaperon stop and pulley assembly to the seat ribs. The other flaperon stop and the flaperon mixer were then riveted to the other seat ribs.  During this time also the auto pilot bracket was installed as per plans.

The crotch strap brackets were then prepared and then riveted to the seat ribs.

Time: 2.25 hrs

Flaperon stop and pulley bracket attached to seat rib

Flaperon stop, flaperon mixer and autopilot bracket attached to seat rib

Autopilot bracket

Crotch strap bracket

Crotch strap bracket

Seat rib assemblies

Seat rib assemblies started

Started today separating the seat belt attach lugs and supports. I then prepped all the seat ribs by removing small piece of metal in the lighting hole as per plans and then deburring all edges.  The seat belt attach lugs and supports were then riveted to the ribs.  Nutplates were placed as per plans.

Time: 2.25 hrs

Seat belt attach lugs riveted to seat ribs

Nut plates attached to seat rib.

More nutplates

Baggage ribs, pulley brackets, flapper on mixer

I got home from work early so I spent some time with N's help furthering the RV 12 project. We started out working on the rear spar supports and matched them to the rear spars on the wings.  Baggage ribs along with bearing brackets were then riveted in place.  The pulley bracket and flaperon mixer were then assembled.

Time: 4.75 hrs

Rear spar receptacle

Baggage ribs

Baggage ribs attached

Bearing bracket

Pulley Bracket

Flaperon mixer arm assembly

Bulkhead finished. Start section 21

Section 20, center bulkhead, was completed today by first attaching the skin attach flanges to the bottom of the bulkhead. The aft bulkhead and side bulkhead were then riveted and then skin stiffeners added.

It was then on to start section 21 which has quite a few pages so will take some time to complete this section. I started by dimpling the baggage floors as per plans.  The baggage floors were then riveted to the bulkhead.  This ended up being a little tricky as the rivets were very close to the baggage floor. I ended up having to gently bend the baggage floor out of the way in order to be able to place the squeezer over the rivet. The ones on the ends were the hardest because of the angle of the squeezer, but I was able to get them done with a little help from N.

The baggage ribs were then prepared and the ones in the middle were dimpled to match the baggage floor. The ribs were then clecoed in place.  Riveting will have to wait for another day.

Time:  2.5 hrs.

Skin attach flanges

Aft bulkhead riveted to center section

Aft bulkhead riveted to center section

Skin Stiffeners

Skin stiffeners

Dimple baggage floor

Clecoing baggage ribs

Rivets ready for pulling baggage floor

Center section bulkhead started

Started putting together the fuselage starting with the center section bulkhead. Started off by countersinking and placing a few nutplates and a retainer block. The fun then began with match drilling 73+ holes into the center section assembly. Per plans I clecoed the bottom skin to get the alignment of the center section aft bulkhead and then clamps were placed to hold parts together. It took over an hour to then get all the holes drilled. A few of the holes were countersunk as per plans.  The skin attach flanges and stiffeners were then cut apart and deburred.

Time: 2.5 hrs.

Nutplate attached to Center section assembly

Retainer block

Center aft bulkhead clamped.

Holes match drilled and clecoed

Holes countersunk in Center section assembly

Skin attach flanges and stiffeners

Fuselage small parts inventory

There are a lot of small hardware and other parts to the fuselage kit. I spent some time today organizing all the parts.  I had to break out a 3rd drawer organizer to have enough drawers for all of them.

Time: 2.5 hrs. 

Fuselage kit here (finally) / inventory started.

Well, it has been some time since being able to work on the plane. Part of that is due to family vacation and other projects around the house. But a big part of it is due to a delay in the delivery of the fuselage kit. Since we live close to the factory I have been picking up the kits myself. Due to a work schedule I wouldn't have been able to pick up the kit until July 3rd.  So I had asked my wife if she would be willing to go get it on Friday the 26th. She graciously said yes.  So on Friday the 26th she traveled to factory to get the kit. The kit was loaded and she was on her way back home. She stopped for gas in Aurora. Since this is Oregon she told the gas attendant to fill the truck with regular and she would pay inside. The truck was filled, gas paid and she was on her way back home.  A little north of Albany she pulled into the rest area for a few minutes. As she started the truck to leave, the truck wasn't running quite right and she said she had noticed it not running very well the past few miles. Thinking about it, she looked at her gas receipt and it said "Diesel".  The gas attendant had mistakenly put diesel in our truck that takes regular. Not good. She called a tow truck and they towed her to a friends auto shop to have the gas tank flushed.

That wasn't the end of the problem.  I went to pick up my wife and son at the auto repair shop and while we were backing out I hit a telephone pole.  I don't know how I did it since the car has a back up camera, but somehow I did. I think we were just so upset about the gas problem that we weren't paying much attention to the back up alarm. So now that needs repaired.

After attempting many many times to get the manager of the gas station to call us back so that we can have his insurance pay for the damages, he has yet to call us back.  The repair took longer then I expected as we were waiting to try and figure out the insurance information, but I finally told the repair shop to get my truck fixed and I would pay for it. My fuselage kit was still in the back of the truck.

With both repairs of the truck and car it ends up adding $2500 of unnecessary cost to my plane.  What chaos a simple act of the gas attendant filling the tank with the wrong fuel can make.

So yesterday after almost a week in the shop I was able to pick the truck up and bring my fuselage kit home.  I am glad to finally have it here and also have my truck back.

Today I spent a short time unpacking and inventorying the parts of the kit. I inventoried all the parts except the hardware. There are a lot of parts to inventory in this kit. I will do that another day.

Time: 1 hr.

Truck being towed

Dent in vehicle after picking up wife from repair shop

Fuselage kit finally home safely after a week in the back of the truck at the auto repair shop.

Fuslage kit packaging.